There was perhaps more applause for William Meredith, founding director of the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, than for old Ludwig himself at the center’s 30th anniversary gala Friday night at the scenic Silver Creek Valley Country Club.

Meredith was honored by the crowd of more than 230 people for his work on behalf of the center, which he’s overseen since it opened at San Jose State in August 1985, to showcase the extensive Beethoven collection of Phoenix developer Ira F. Brilliant.

Charlene Archibeque, the longtime choral director at San Jose State and chair of the evening’s festivities, presented him with gifts and he was cheered on by family — mom, Charlotte Meredith, sister Amy Cox and brothers John Meredith and Jeff Meredith — who traveled to San Jose for the celebration.

Fortunately, the audience had plenty of applause to spare for the evening’s musical performance by pianist Susan Kagan, plus singer Malin Fritz and pianist Daniel Hughes who paired on two songs.

Even the live auction got a little musical, when a private concert featuring pianist Gwendolyn Mok and hosted by Joel and Eileen Birmbaum came up for bid. Mok surprised the audience by sauntering over to the piano and playing eight bars of Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” as a teaser. When the bidding hit $5,000, she played two more bars for the eventual winner, composer Brent Heisinger, a professor emeritus of music at San Jose State.

THIS TAKES THE CAKE: You really shouldn’t have a birthday party without cake, and the Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies came close to celebrating its 30th without any until Bijan Abachizadeh came to the rescue.

Lina Broydo, who served on the gala committee, said organizers made a deal with a new Silicon Valley bakery about nine months ago but discovered just a few weeks ago that the bakery didn’t have the capacity to make sheet cakes.

Coming up with dessert for more than 230 guests isn’t a piece of cake, but they turned to Bijan’s Bakery, and Abachizadeh delivered three big mango and raspberry cakes for the event. Broydo guesses it helped that Abachizadeh, who opened his first bakery in 1986, once taught engineering at San Jose State, where the Beethoven center is located.

RADIO ROYALTY: KBAY-FM morning co-host Lissa Kreisler had a lot to celebrate Monday. It was her 60th birthday — though you couldn’t tell by looking at her and you’d swear she was in high school based on her energy — and it was announced over the weekend that she’s being inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame this year.

Kreisler will be joining her co-host, Sam Van Zandt, in the hallowed hall, and as I said last year when he was elected, the sheer number of community appearances and emcee gigs that she does every year is staggering, whether she’s hanging out at the Gilroy Garlic Festival over the weekend or helping Toys for Tots “Stuff the Bus” every year at Christmas in the Park.

And she always seems to have a smile on her face, even if you can’t see it over the radio.

Sal Pizarro has written the Around Town column for The Mercury News since 2005. His column covers the people and events surrounding the cultural scene in Silicon Valley. In addition, he writes Cocktail Chronicles, a feature column on Silicon Valley bars and nightclubs.